MoveOn.Org | Democracy In Action » Warhttp://front.moveon.org
MoveOn is a community of more than 8 million Americans from all walks of life who use innovative technology to lead, participate in, and win campaigns for progressive change.Sat, 01 Aug 2015 12:30:53 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3Possible Military Action in Iraq and Syria: What questions must be answered before America goes to war?http://front.moveon.org/moveon-calls-for-debate/
http://front.moveon.org/moveon-calls-for-debate/#commentsThu, 11 Sep 2014 15:16:00 +0000http://front.moveon.org/?p=54814Statement of Anna Galland, executive director of MoveOn.org Civic Action, in response to President Obama’s speech to the nation:

Few if any decisions a country makes are as consequential as the decision to go to war. Such a decision must not be taken lightly, or made in haste.

We remember well the lives lost and damage done by the ill-gotten, ill-informed rush to war in Iraq in 2003. Many of the same people who drove us to war then are the ones rattling sabers now.

While we appreciate President Obama’s commitment to avoid sending troops into combat, his proposed approach poses significant risks, including escalation and unintended consequences, such as boosting violent extremism and terrorist recruitment. There is the risk of a quagmire. The White House says this new war could last for three years — or longer.

Because of the broad, extended, and open-ended nature of this proposed expansion of U.S. military force in the Middle East, before moving forward Congress and the American public must play a role, ask the tough questions, and consider a comprehensive list of sound alternatives.

Bottom line: Congress and the American people must have a full, vigorous, and open debate before the U.S. embarks upon another war in the Middle East.

]]>http://front.moveon.org/moveon-calls-for-debate/feed/0If You Witnessed War Crimes, What Would You Do?http://front.moveon.org/if-you-witnessed-war-crimes-what-would-you-do/
http://front.moveon.org/if-you-witnessed-war-crimes-what-would-you-do/#commentsThu, 06 Jun 2013 00:33:57 +0000http://front.moveon.org/?p=47796Would you speak out? WATCH:

]]>http://front.moveon.org/if-you-witnessed-war-crimes-what-would-you-do/feed/0Dying Veteran Writes On Behalf Of Thousands As He Tears Into Bush And Cheney In An Open Letterhttp://front.moveon.org/dying-veteran-writes-on-behalf-of-thousands-as-he-tears-into-bush-and-cheney-in-an-open-letter/
http://front.moveon.org/dying-veteran-writes-on-behalf-of-thousands-as-he-tears-into-bush-and-cheney-in-an-open-letter/#commentsWed, 20 Mar 2013 15:56:01 +0000http://front.moveon.org/?p=46860This is honest. This is important. This is going viral.

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens,along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.

I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.

I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.

I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I have, like many other disabled veterans, come to realize that our mental and physical wounds are of no interest to you, perhaps of no interest to any politician. We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.

My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.

]]>http://front.moveon.org/dying-veteran-writes-on-behalf-of-thousands-as-he-tears-into-bush-and-cheney-in-an-open-letter/feed/02012 Was A Record Year For Active Duty Soldiers In A Heartbreaking Wayhttp://front.moveon.org/2012-was-a-record-year-for-active-duty-soldiers-in-a-heartbreaking-way/
http://front.moveon.org/2012-was-a-record-year-for-active-duty-soldiers-in-a-heartbreaking-way/#commentsTue, 19 Mar 2013 14:53:31 +0000http://front.moveon.org/?p=46852No words, only sadness.

]]>http://front.moveon.org/2012-was-a-record-year-for-active-duty-soldiers-in-a-heartbreaking-way/feed/0How Make-Believe WMDs Wounded Our Military And Rocketed Our National Debthttp://front.moveon.org/how-make-believe-wmds-wounded-our-military-and-rocketed-our-national-debt/
http://front.moveon.org/how-make-believe-wmds-wounded-our-military-and-rocketed-our-national-debt/#commentsTue, 19 Mar 2013 14:37:20 +0000http://front.moveon.org/?p=46844Ten years ago we went to war. Here’s a glimpse of the result.

]]>http://front.moveon.org/how-make-believe-wmds-wounded-our-military-and-rocketed-our-national-debt/feed/0STAGGERING: What Could We Have If We Hadn't Invaded A Country That Didn't Have WMDs?http://front.moveon.org/staggering-what-could-we-have-if-we-hadnt-invaded-a-country-that-didnt-have-wmds/
http://front.moveon.org/staggering-what-could-we-have-if-we-hadnt-invaded-a-country-that-didnt-have-wmds/#commentsMon, 18 Mar 2013 21:44:46 +0000http://front.moveon.org/?p=46782What one huge lie cost American taxpayers.

]]>http://front.moveon.org/staggering-what-could-we-have-if-we-hadnt-invaded-a-country-that-didnt-have-wmds/feed/010 Years Later: One Of The First Veterans To Stand Against The War In Iraq Is Paying The Ultimate Sacrificehttp://front.moveon.org/10-years-later-one-of-the-first-veterans-to-stand-against-the-war-in-iraq-is-paying-the-ultimate-sacrifice/
http://front.moveon.org/10-years-later-one-of-the-first-veterans-to-stand-against-the-war-in-iraq-is-paying-the-ultimate-sacrifice/#commentsMon, 18 Mar 2013 17:26:57 +0000http://front.moveon.org/?p=46825In 2007, a movie featuring Tomas Young, a young veteran from the Iraq War, won Best Documentary by the National Board of Review. This story will break your heart. Even more crushingly, Tomas is in hospice care now and is slowly dying from his injuries. WATCH:

How many more Tomas Youngs are out there?
Read more about Tomas’ current condition HERE.

]]>http://front.moveon.org/10-years-later-one-of-the-first-veterans-to-stand-against-the-war-in-iraq-is-paying-the-ultimate-sacrifice/feed/0Republicans Lie About These Two Things. One Is Real, The Other Was Not.http://front.moveon.org/republicans-lie-about-these-two-things-one-is-real-the-other-was-not/
http://front.moveon.org/republicans-lie-about-these-two-things-one-is-real-the-other-was-not/#commentsMon, 18 Mar 2013 16:59:55 +0000http://front.moveon.org/?p=46817Still need help figuring out which one is real?

]]>http://front.moveon.org/republicans-lie-about-these-two-things-one-is-real-the-other-was-not/feed/0There Are 17,000 Of These Now. What If There Was Zero?http://front.moveon.org/there-are-17000-of-these-now-what-if-there-was-zero/
http://front.moveon.org/there-are-17000-of-these-now-what-if-there-was-zero/#commentsThu, 07 Mar 2013 16:27:11 +0000http://front.moveon.org/?p=46662Would you see the world differently? WATCH:

]]>http://front.moveon.org/the-biggest-aha-moment-every-american-needs-to-have/feed/0POWERFUL! This 52 Second Clip Will Produce A Lump In Your Throathttp://front.moveon.org/powerful-this-52-second-clip-will-produce-a-lump-in-your-throat/
http://front.moveon.org/powerful-this-52-second-clip-will-produce-a-lump-in-your-throat/#commentsFri, 23 Nov 2012 21:52:45 +0000http://front.moveon.org/?p=44313Let’s figure out ways they never have to leave in the first place. WATCH:

]]>http://front.moveon.org/powerful-this-52-second-clip-will-produce-a-lump-in-your-throat/feed/0KILLER ROBOTS: The Scariest Weapons You Have Never Heard Ofhttp://front.moveon.org/killer-robots-the-scariest-weapons-you-have-never-heard-of/
http://front.moveon.org/killer-robots-the-scariest-weapons-you-have-never-heard-of/#commentsWed, 21 Nov 2012 04:37:52 +0000http://front.moveon.org/?p=44212Automated killer robots — robots that can kill without human intervention — are not far off, and could change the very definition of war. They should be banned immediately, says Human Rights Watch.

Originally found on HumanRightsWatch’s YouTube Channel. Submitted by Matt P.

]]>http://front.moveon.org/killer-robots-the-scariest-weapons-you-have-never-heard-of/feed/0It's Your Fault, Mr. President, That This Couple Just Got Engagedhttp://front.moveon.org/its-your-fault-mr-president-that-this-couple-just-got-engaged/
http://front.moveon.org/its-your-fault-mr-president-that-this-couple-just-got-engaged/#commentsWed, 21 Nov 2012 03:27:36 +0000http://front.moveon.org/?p=44195This couple tells their engagement story to the president, and it’s kind of hilarious. This will put a huge smile on your face!

]]>http://front.moveon.org/who-actually-caused-the-deficit/feed/0Take A Look At This Guy And See If You Can Guess Who He's Voting Forhttp://front.moveon.org/take-a-look-at-this-guy-and-see-if-you-can-guess-who-hes-voting-for/
http://front.moveon.org/take-a-look-at-this-guy-and-see-if-you-can-guess-who-hes-voting-for/#commentsFri, 02 Nov 2012 16:20:49 +0000http://front.moveon.org/?p=42882Check the short clip and see if you’re right. WATCH:

]]>http://front.moveon.org/take-a-look-at-this-guy-and-see-if-you-can-guess-who-hes-voting-for/feed/0Obama Schools Romney On The Fact That We Have 'Fewer Horses And Bayonets'http://front.moveon.org/obama-schools-romney-on-the-fact-that-we-have-fewer-horses-and-bayonets/
http://front.moveon.org/obama-schools-romney-on-the-fact-that-we-have-fewer-horses-and-bayonets/#commentsTue, 23 Oct 2012 02:39:28 +0000http://front.moveon.org/?p=42275He also explains where planes land while at sea. Watch:

]]>http://front.moveon.org/obama-schools-romney-on-the-fact-that-we-have-fewer-horses-and-bayonets/feed/0The Astronomical Amount Defense Spending Would Skyrocket Under Mitt Romneyhttp://front.moveon.org/the-astronomical-amount-defense-spending-would-skyrocket-under-mitt-romney/
http://front.moveon.org/the-astronomical-amount-defense-spending-would-skyrocket-under-mitt-romney/#commentsTue, 23 Oct 2012 02:01:11 +0000http://front.moveon.org/?p=42266Romney wants to increase military spending from 3.5 percent of GDP to 4 percent. This amounts to a $2.1 trillion increase over a ten year period, and he has no plan to pay for it. Center For American Progress’ Lawrence Korb ran the numbers on Romney’s defense budget: